In the manufacture of aircraft wings from laminated sheet material it is necessary, after cutting the outline of the wing, to smooth the rough, cut edge of the sheet with a router bit or like cutting tool. The wings of current military aircraft are, however, made of a graphite-epoxy composite, with or without aluminum or titanium backup, which is so extremely abrasive that ordinary metal cutting tools are dulled by the composite too quickly to be employed economically. Moreover, the composite would be subject to delamination and splintering if its edges were smoothed with tungsten carbide or polycrystalline diamond routers of conventional design. Similarly, less abrasive materials such as plywood are splintered and delaminated when their edges are trimmed with routers of conventional metals such as tool steel, for example.
It is therefor the object of the present invention to provide an edge routing cutting tool of novel construction which smooths the edges of sheets without splintering or delaminating them.